176-463: Cathay ( / k æ ˈ θ eɪ / ka- THAY ) is a historical name for China that was used in Europe. During the early modern period, the term Cathay initially evolved as a term referring to what is now Northern China, completely separate and distinct from China , which was a reference to southern China. As knowledge of East Asia increased, Cathay came to be seen as the same polity as China as
352-612: A population genetic study, Singapore is "the country with the biggest proportion of Han Chinese" in Southeast Asia. Singapore is the only nation in the world where Overseas Chinese constitute a majority of the population and remain the country's cultural, economic and politically dominant arbiters vis-à-vis their non-Han minority counterparts. Up until the past few decades, overseas Han communities originated predominantly from areas in Eastern and Southeastern China (mainly from
528-626: A Chinese mother inherited her nationality only if the father was stateless or had unknown nationality status. These regulations were enacted in response to a 1907 statute passed in The Netherlands that retroactively treated all Chinese born in the Dutch East Indies as Dutch citizens. Jus sanguinis was chosen to define Chinese nationality so that the Qing could counter foreign claims on overseas Chinese populations and maintain
704-446: A culturally, economically and politically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han minorities throughout most of China's recorded history. Han Chinese are almost the majority in every Chinese province, municipality and autonomous region except for the autonomous regions of Xinjiang (38% or 40% in 2010) and Tibet Autonomous Region (8% in 2014), where Uighurs and Tibetans are the majority, respectively. Han Chinese also constitute
880-528: A definition of referring to lands where the "state claimed sovereignty" rather than only the Central Plains area and its people by the end of the 18th century. Elena Barabantseva also noted that the Manchu referred to all subjects of the Qing empire regardless of ethnicity as "Chinese" ( 中國 之 人 ; Zhōngguó zhī rén ; 'China's person'), and used the term ( 中國 ; Zhōngguó ) as a synonym for
1056-526: A famous passage that "our greatest shame is that our country has no name. The names that people ordinarily think of, such as Xia, Han, or Tang, are all the titles of bygone dynasties." He argued that the other countries of the world "all boast of their own state names, such as England and France, the only exception being the Central States", and that the concept of tianxia had to be abandoned in favor of guojia , that is, "nation", for which he accepted
1232-589: A fantastical reimagination of the world used as a setting for various novels and games produced by Games Workshop , Grand Cathay is the largest human empire, situated in the far east of the setting and based on medieval China. Cathay is more prevalent in proper terms, such as in Cathay Pacific Airways or Cathay Hotel . Cathay Bank is a bank with multiple branches throughout the United States and other countries. Cathay Cineplexes
1408-573: A form based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin . The English name " China " was borrowed from Portuguese during the 16th century, and its direct cognates became common in the subsequent centuries in the West. It is believed to be a borrowing from Middle Persian , and some have traced it further back to the Sanskrit word चीन ( cīna ) for the nation. It is also thought that the ultimate source of
1584-468: A formal international legal document for the first time during the Qing dynasty in the Treaty of Nerchinsk , 1689. The term was then used in communications with other states and in treaties. The Manchu rulers incorporated Inner Asian polities into their empire , and Wei Yuan , a statecraft scholar, distinguished the new territories from Zhongguo , which he defined as the 17 provinces of " China proper " plus
1760-541: A merchant from Florence , compiled the Pratica della mercatura , a guide about trade in China, a country he called Cathay , noting the size of Khanbaliq (modern Beijing ) and how merchants could exchange silver for Chinese paper money that could be used to buy luxury items such as silk. Words related to Khitay are still used in many Turkic and Slavic languages to refer to China. The ethnonym derived from Khitay in
1936-453: A resemblance to the areas they had left behind in China, regardless of whether they arrived in the north or south of Taiwan. Hoklo immigrants from Quanzhou settled in coastal regions and those from Zhangzhou tended to gather on inland plains, while the Hakka inhabited hilly areas. Clashes and tensions between the two groups over land, water, ethno-racial, and cultural differences led to
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#17327652259112112-429: A rich history that spans thousands of years, with their historical roots dating back to the days of ancient China . Throughout Han history, China has been governed by dynasties , with periods during which it has seen cycles of expansion, contraction, unity, and fragmentation. Due to the overwhelming numerical and cultural dominance of Han culture in China, most of the written history of China can be read as "a history of
2288-581: A strong suspicion that Marco Polo's Cathay is simply the Tatar (i.e., Mongol ) name for the country he was in, i.e. China. Ricci supported his arguments by numerous correspondences between Marco Polo's accounts and his own observations: Most importantly, when the Jesuits first arrived to Beijing 1598, they also met a number of "Mohammedans" or "Arabian Turks" – visitors or immigrants from the Muslim countries to
2464-598: A whole. The term Cathay became a poetic name for China. The name Cathay originates from the term Khitan ( Chinese : 契丹 ; pinyin : Qìdān ), a para-Mongolic nomadic people who ruled the Liao dynasty in northern China from 916 to 1125, and who later migrated west after they were overthrown by the Jin dynasty to form the Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty) for another century thereafter. Originally, this name
2640-481: Is China, as he met the members of a caravan returning from Beijing to Kashgar, who told them about staying in the same Beijing inn with Portuguese Jesuits. (In fact, those were the same very "Saracens" who had, a few months earlier, confirmed it to Ricci that they were in "Cathay"). De Góis died in Suzhou, Gansu – the first Ming China city he reached – while waiting for an entry permit to proceed toward Beijing; but, in
2816-827: Is a cinema operator in Singapore operated by mm2 Asia, acquired from the Cathay Organisation . Cathay United Bank and Cathay Life Insurance are, respectively, a financial services company and an insurance company, both located in Taiwan. Names of China The names of China include the many contemporary and historical designations given in various languages for the East Asian country known as Zhōngguó ( 中国 ; 中國 ; 'Central State', 'Middle Kingdom') in Standard Chinese ,
2992-509: Is a derogatory term in Chinese meaning "barbarians of the south" ( Man was used to describe unsinicised Southern China in its earlier periods), and would therefore not have been used by the Chinese to describe themselves or their own country, but it was adopted by the Mongols to describe the people and country of Southern China. The name for South China commonly used on Western medieval maps
3168-510: Is a term meaning "Chinese nation" in the sense of a multi-ethnic national identity. Though originally rejected by the PRC, it has been used officially since the 1980s for nationalist politics. Tianchao ( 天朝 ; pinyin : Tiāncháo ), translated as 'heavenly dynasty' or 'Celestial Empire', and Tianxia ( 天下 ; pinyin : Tiānxià ) translated as ' All under heaven ', have both been used to refer to China. These terms were usually used in
3344-581: Is also common as part of the idiom Jiāngshān shèjì ( 江山社稷 ; 'rivers and mountains', 'soil and grain'), in a suggestion of the need to implement good governance. The name jiǔ zhōu ( 九州 ) means 'nine provinces'. Widely used in pre-modern Chinese text, the word originated during the middle of the Warring States period. During that time, the Yellow River region was divided into nine geographical regions; thus this name
3520-648: Is complicated by the absence of contemporary records, the discovery of archaeological sites has enabled a succession of Neolithic cultures to be identified along the Yellow River. Along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River were the Cishan culture ( c. 6500–5000 BCE ), the Yangshao culture ( c. 5000–3000 BCE ), the Longshan culture ( c. 3000–2000 BCE ) and
3696-582: Is often used to refer to mainland China to the exclusion of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan . In 1912, China adopted its official name, Chunghwa Minkuo (rendered in pinyin Zhōnghuá Mínguó ) or in English as the "Republic of China", which has also sometimes been referred to as " Republican China " or the "Republican Era" ( 民國時代 ), in contrast to the Qing dynasty it replaced, or as " Nationalist China ", after
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#17327652259113872-631: Is on the bronze vessel He zun (dating to 1038– c. 1000 BCE ), during the early Western Zhou period. The phrase "zhong guo" came into common usage in the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), when it referred to the "Central States", the states of the Yellow River Valley of the Zhou era, as distinguished from the tribal periphery. In later periods, however, Zhongguo was not used in this sense. Dynastic names were used for
4048-587: Is recorded in Old Malay as one of the local terms for China, along with the Sanskrit-derived Cina . It is still used in Malaysia today, usually in a derogatory sense. Among Taiwanese, Tang mountain (Min-Nan: Tng-soa) has been used, for example, in the saying, "has Tangshan father, no Tangshan mother" ( 有唐山公，無唐山媽 ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Ū Tn̂g-soaⁿ kong, bô Tn̂g-soaⁿ má ). This refers to how
4224-557: Is said to have sent several hundred thousand men and fifteen thousand women to form agricultural and military settlements in Lingnan (present day Guangxi and Guangdong), under the leadership of a general named Zhao Tuo. The famous Han emperor, Han Wu Di, ordered another two hundred thousand men to build ships to attack and colonialize the Lingnan region, thus adding to the population in Guangdong and Guangxi. The first urban conurbations in
4400-570: Is the Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BCE), established by Yu the Great after Emperor Shun abdicated leadership to reward Yu's work in taming the Great Flood . Yu's son, Qi , managed to not only install himself as the next ruler, but also dictated his sons as heirs by default, making the Xia dynasty the first in recorded history where genealogical succession was the norm. The civilizational prosperity of
4576-672: Is the combination of two words which originally referred to the elegance of traditional Han attire and the Confucian concept of rites . In the original sense, Huaxia refers to a confederation of tribes—living along the Yellow River—who were the ancestors of what later became the Han ethnic group in China. During the Warring States (475–221 BCE), the self-awareness of the Huaxia identity developed and took hold in ancient China. Zhonghua minzu
4752-747: Is traditionally credited to have united with the neighbouring Shennong tribes after defeating their leader, the Yan Emperor , at the Battle of Banquan . The newly merged Yanhuang tribes then combined forces to defeat their common enemy from the east, Chiyou of the Jiuli ( 九黎 ) tribes, at the Battle of Zhuolu and established their cultural dominance in the Central Plain region. To this day, modern Han Chinese refer themselves as " Descendants of Yan and Huang ". Although study of this period of history
4928-618: Is used by the People's Republic of China to refer to the most populous of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China. The name Tang ( 唐 ; Táng ) comes from the Tang dynasty (618–907) that presided over China's second golden age. It was during the Tang dynasty that South China was finally and fully sinicized ; Tang would become synonymous with China in Southern China, and it
5104-527: Is used in Hong Kong specifically to mean mainland China, excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Increasingly, it is also being used in an official context within mainland China , for example, in reference to the separate judicial and customs jurisdictions of mainland China on the one hand and Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan on the other. The term Neidi is also often used in Xinjiang and Tibet to distinguish
5280-676: Is usually Southern Chinese who refer to themselves as " People of Tang " ( 唐人 , pinyin : Tángrén ). For example, the sinicization and rapid development of Guangdong during the Tang period would lead the Cantonese to refer to themselves as Tong-yan ( 唐人 ) in Cantonese, while China is called Tong-saan ( 唐山 ; pinyin: Tángshān ; lit. 'Tang Mountain'). Chinatowns worldwide, often dominated by Southern Chinese, also became referred to as Tang People's Street ( 唐人街 , Cantonese: Tong-yan-gaai; pinyin: Tángrénjiē ). The Cantonese term Tongsan (Tang mountain)
5456-582: The An Lu Shan rebellion during the Tang dynasty (755–763 AD), and the Jingkang incident (1127 AD) and Jin-Song wars . These events caused widespread devastation, and even depopulated the north, resulting in the complete social and political breakdown and collapse of central authority in the Central Plains, triggering massive, sustained waves of Han Chinese migration into South China, leading to
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5632-718: The Erlitou culture ( c. 1900–1500 BCE ). These cultures are believed to be related to the origins of the Sino-Tibetan languages and later the Sinitic languages . They were the foundation for the formation of Old Chinese and the founding of the Shang dynasty , China's first confirmed dynasty. Early ancient Chinese history is largely legendary, consisting of mythical tales intertwined with sporadic annals written centuries to millennia later. Sima Qian's Records of
5808-660: The First Sino-Japanese War . Zhu Yu , who wrote during the Northern Song dynasty, noted that the name "Han" was first used by the northwestern 'barbarians' to refer to China, while the name "Tang" was first used by the southeastern 'barbarians' to refer to China, and these terms subsequently influenced the local Chinese terminology. During the Mongol invasions of Japan, the Japanese distinguished between
5984-695: The Huaxia that lived along the Guanzhong and Yellow River basins in Northern China. In addition, numerous ethnic groups were assimilated and absorbed by the Han Chinese at various points in China's history. Like many modern ethnic groups, the ethnogenesis of Han Chinese was a lengthy process that involved the expansion of the successive Chinese dynasties and their assimilation of various non-Han ethnic groups that became sinicised over
6160-616: The Hundred Schools of Thought ) and Confucianism , Taoism and Legalism are among the most important surviving philosophies from this era. The chaotic Warring States period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty came to an end with the unification of China by the western state of Qin after its conquest of all other rival states under King Ying Zheng . King Zheng then gave himself a new title " First Emperor of Qin " ( Chinese : 秦始皇帝 ; pinyin : Qín Shǐ Huángdì ), setting
6336-548: The Lifanyuan and kept them separate from Han areas and administration, it was the Manchu Qing Emperors who expanded the definition of Zhongguo and made it "flexible" by using that term to refer to the entire Empire and using that term to other countries in diplomatic correspondence, while some Han Chinese subjects criticized their usage of the term and the Han literati Wei Yuan used Zhongguo only to refer to
6512-687: The Mughal capitals Agra and Lahore ), Cathay – a country that could be reached via Kashgar – had a large Christian population, while the Jesuits in China had not found any Christians there. In retrospect, the Central Asian Muslim informants' idea of the Ming China being a heavily Christian country may be explained by numerous similarities between Christian and Buddhist ecclesiastical rituals – from having sumptuous statuary and ecclesiastical robes to Gregorian chant – which would make
6688-503: The Northern and Southern period and was inspired by the Han dynasty , which is considered to be one of the first golden ages in Chinese history . As a unified and cohesive empire that succeeded the short-lived Qin dynasty, Han China established itself as the center of the East Asian geopolitical order at the time, projecting its power and influence unto Asian neighbors. It was comparable with
6864-598: The Pearl River Delta . These mass migrations over the centuries inevitably led to the demographic expansion, economic prosperity, agricultural advancements, and cultural flourishing of Southern China, which remained relatively peaceful unlike its northern counterpart. The vast majority of Han Chinese – over 1.2 billion – live in the People's Republic of China (PRC), where they constitute about 90% of its overall population. Han Chinese in China have been
7040-668: The Uprising of the Five Barbarians triggered the first massive movement of Han Chinese dominated by civilians rather than soldiers to the south, being led principally by the aristocracy and the Jin elite. Thus, Jiangnan, comprising Hangzhou's coastal regions and the Yangtze valley were settled in the 4th century AD by families descended from Chinese nobility. Special " commanderies of immigrants" and "white registers" were created for
7216-650: The Uyghur language for Han Chinese is considered pejorative by both its users and its referents, and the PRC authorities have attempted to ban its use. The term also strongly connotes Uyghur nationalism . As European and Arab travelers started reaching the Mongol Empire , they described the Mongol-controlled Northern China as Cathay in a number of spelling variants. The name occurs in
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7392-452: The Warring States period to elucidate the shared ethnicity of all Chinese; Chinese people called themselves Hua ren . The Warring States period led to the emergence of the Zhou-era Chinese referring to themselves as being Huaxia (literally 'the beautiful grandeur'): under the Hua–Yi distinction , a "Hua" culture (often translated as 'civilized') was contrasted to that of peoples perceived as "Yi" (often translated as ' barbarian ') living on
7568-422: The Yalu River ." It further stated that "There are about a dozen countries in Asia, but only China has a vast territory, a prosperous population, and dominates East Asia. It is a great and world-famous country." The Qing enacted the first Chinese nationality law in 1909, which defined a Chinese national (Chinese: 中國國籍 ; pinyin: Zhōngguó Guójí ) as any person born to a Chinese father. Children born to
7744-415: The global population . The Han Chinese represent 92% of the population in China and 97% of the population in Taiwan . Han Chinese form large diaspora populations throughout Southeast Asia, comprising large minorities in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In Singapore, people of Han Chinese or Chinese descent make up around 75% of the country's population. The Han Chinese have exerted
7920-412: The languages of China . Those languages belonging to a former dependency (tributary) or Chinese-influenced country have an especially similar pronunciation to that of Chinese. Those used in Indo-European languages , however, have indirect names that came via other routes and may bear little resemblance to what is used in China. English, most Indo-European languages , and many others use various forms of
8096-482: The largest ethnic group in China are Hàn ( 汉 ; 漢 ) and Táng ( 唐 ). The People's Republic of China ( Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó ) and the Republic of China ( Zhōnghuá Mínguó ) are the official names of the two governments presently claiming sovereignty over "China". The term " mainland China " is used to refer to areas under the PRC's jurisdiction, either including or excluding Hong Kong and Macau . There are also names for China used around
8272-424: The " Flowery Kingdom ", translated from Huáguó (華國; 华国). However, some have since argued that such a translation (fairly commonly seen at that time) was perhaps caused by misunderstanding the Huá (華; 华) that means "China" (or "magnificent, splendid") for the Huā (花) that means "flower". The name Huáxià ( 华夏 ; 華夏 ) is generally used as a sobriquet in Chinese text. Under traditional interpretations, it
8448-433: The "Cathayans" were dividing the day – and Martini, who of course knew no Persian, was able to continue the list. The names of the 24 solar terms matched as well. The story, soon published by Martini in the "Additamentum" to his Atlas of China, seemed to have finally convinced most European scholars that China and Cathay were the same. Even then, some people still viewed Cathay as distinct from China, as did John Milton in
8624-406: The "Han" of northern China, who, like the Mongols and Koreans, were not to be taken prisoner, and the Newly Submitted Army of southern China, whom they called "Tang", who would be enslaved instead. Dàlù ( 大陸 / 大陆 ; pinyin : dàlù ), literally "big continent" or "mainland" in this context, is used as a short form of Zhōnggúo Dàlù ( 中國大陸 / 中国大陆 , mainland China), excluding (depending on
8800-475: The "Middle Kingdom" entered European languages through the Portuguese in the 16th century and became popular in the mid-19th century. By the mid-20th century, the term was thoroughly entrenched in the English language, reflecting the Western view of China as the inward-looking Middle Kingdom, or more accurately, the Central Kingdom or Central State . Endymion Wilkinson points out that the Chinese were not unique in thinking of their country as central, although China
8976-485: The "People's Republic of China" in English, which was adapted from the CCP's short-lived Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931. This term is also sometimes used by writers outside of mainland China. The PRC was known to many in the West during the Cold War as " Communist China " or "Red China" to distinguish it from the Republic of China which is commonly called "Taiwan", "Nationalist China", or "Free China". In some contexts, particularly in economics, trade, and sports, "China"
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#17327652259119152-441: The 11th Book of his Paradise Lost (1667). In 1939, Hisao Migo ( Japanese : 御江久夫 , a Japanese botanist) published a paper describing Iris cathayensis (meaning "Chinese iris") in the Journal of the Shanghai Science Institute . Below is the etymological progression from "Khitan" to Cathay as the word travelled westward: In many Turkic and Slavic languages a form of "Cathay" (e.g., Russian : Китай , Kitay ) remains
9328-411: The 19th century, the notion of China as a multinational state with new, significantly extended borders had become the standard terminology for Han Chinese writers. Rowe noted that "these were the origins of the China we know today.". He added that while the early Qing rulers viewed themselves as multi-hatted emperors who ruled several nationalities "separately but simultaneously", by the mid-19th century,
9504-465: The 19th century, when it was completely replaced by China . Demonyms for the people of Cathay (i.e., Chinese people ) were Cathayan and Cataian . The terms China and Cathay have histories of approximately equal length in English. Cathay is still used poetically. The Hong Kong flag-bearing airline is named Cathay Pacific . One of the largest commercial banks of Taiwan is named Cathay United Bank . The novel Creation by Gore Vidal uses
9680-621: The Administration of the State , apparently as two separate countries (presumably, referring to the Liao and Song Empires , respectively). The name's currency in the Muslim world survived the replacement of the Khitan Liao dynasty with the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the early 12th century. When describing the fall of the Jin Empire to the Mongols (1234), Persian history described the conquered country as Khitāy or Djerdaj Khitāy (i.e., "Jurchen Cathay"). The Mongols themselves, in their Secret History (13th century) talk of both Khitans and Kara-Khitans. In about 1340 Francesco Balducci Pegolotti ,
9856-431: The Central Plains by Han Wu Di, was now repopulated by Han Chinese settlers and colonists from the Chinese heartland. The "Eight Great Surnames" were eight noble families who migrated from the Central Plains to Fujian - these were the Hu, He, Qiu, Dan, Zheng, Huang, Chen and Lin clans, who remain there until this very day. In the wake of the An Lushan rebellion , a further wave of Han migrants from northern China headed
10032-412: The Chinese and Manchu languages, defining China as a multi-ethnic state , rejecting the idea that China only meant Han areas; both Han and non-Han peoples were part of "China".. Officials used "China" (though not exclusively) in official documents, international treaties, and foreign affairs, and the "Chinese language" (Manchu: Dulimbai gurun i bithe ) referred to Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol languages, and
10208-423: The Chinese identity included Tibetans and Mongolians or what the connotations of being Chinese were. The English version of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking refers to "His Majesty the Emperor of China" while the Chinese refers both to "The Great Qing Emperor" ( Da Qing Huangdi ) and to Zhongguo as well. The 1858 Treaty of Tientsin has similar language. In the late 19th century, the reformer Liang Qichao argued in
10384-483: The Dugu and Yuwen families. The Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties saw continuing emigration from the Central Plains to the south-eastern coast of what is now China proper, including the provinces of Fujian , Guangdong , and Hainan . This was especially true in the latter part of the Tang era and the Five Dynasties period that followed; the relative stability of the south coast made it an attractive destination for refugees fleeing continual warfare and turmoil in
10560-445: The Dutch Orientalist Jacobus Golius met with the China-based Jesuit Martino Martini , who was passing through Leyden . Golius knew no Chinese, but he was familiar with Zij-i Ilkhani , a work by the Persian astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi , completed in 1272, in which he described the Chinese ("Cathayan") calendar . Upon meeting Martini, Golius started reciting the names of the 12 divisions into which, according to Nasir al-Din,
10736-488: The Grand Historian recorded a period following the Battle of Zhuolu, during the reign of successive generations of confederate overlords ( Chinese : 共主 ) known as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors (c. 2852–2070 BCE), who, allegedly, were elected to power among the tribes. This is a period for which scant reliable archaeological evidence exists – these sovereigns are largely regarded as cultural heroes . The first dynasty to be described in Chinese historical records
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#173276522591110912-439: The Great Qing Empire in Chinese) and the local denomination "CANDARINS". During the late Qing dynasty, various textbooks with the name "Chinese history" (中國歷史) had emerged by the early 20th century. For example, the late Qing textbook "Chinese History of the Present Dynasty" published in 1910 stated that "the history of our present dynasty is part of the history of China, that is, the most recent history in its whole history. China
11088-414: The Han Chinese from Northern China to Southern China, leading to a further increase in the Han Chinese population across southern Chinese provinces. The formation of the Hainanese and Hakka people can be attributed to the chaos of this period. The Mongol conquest of China during the thirteenth century once again caused a surging influx of Northern Han Chinese refugees to move south to settle and develop
11264-432: The Han Chinese population in the south far outstripped that of the Bai Yue. Guangdong and Fujian both experienced a significant influx of Northern Han Chinese settlers, leading many Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew individuals to identify themselves as Tangren , which has served as a means to assert and acknowledge their ethnic and cultural origin and identity. The Jin–Song Wars caused yet another wave of mass migration of
11440-418: The Han Chinese," hinted and tinged with only passing references to its ethnic non-Han minority counterparts . The prehistory of the Han Chinese is closely intertwined with both archaeology, biology, historical textual records, and mythology. The ethnic stock to which the Han Chinese originally trace their ancestry from were confederations of late Neolithic and early Bronze Age agricultural tribes known as
11616-583: The Han dynasty, ancient Chinese scholars used the term Huaxia ( 華夏 ; 华夏 ; Huáxià ) in texts to describe China proper , while the Chinese populace were referred to as either the 'various Hua' ( 諸華 ; 诸华 ; Zhūhuá ) or 'various Xia' ( 诸夏 ; 諸夏 ; Zhūxià ). This gave rise to two term commonly used nowadays by Overseas Chinese as an ethnic identity for the Chinese diaspora – Huaren ( 華人 ; 华人 ; Huárén ; 'ethnic Chinese people') and Huaqiao ( 华侨 ; 華僑 ; Huáqiáo ; 'the Chinese immigrant'), meaning Overseas Chinese . It has also given rise to
11792-465: The Han people crossing the Taiwan Strait in the 17th and 18th centuries were mostly men, and that many of their offspring would be through intermarriage with Taiwanese aborigine women. In Ryukyuan , karate was originally called tii ( 手 , hand) or karatii ( 唐手 , Tang hand) because 唐ぬ國 too-nu-kuku or kara-nu-kuku ( 唐ぬ國 ) was a common Ryukyuan name for China; it was changed to karate ( 空手 , open hand) to appeal to Japanese people after
11968-421: The Japanese replace it with Zhonghua minguo , or simply Zhongguo . Before the signing of the Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty in 1871, the first treaty between Qing China and the Empire of Japan , Japanese representatives once raised objections to China's use of the term Zhongguo in the treaty (partly in response to China's earlier objections for the term Tennō or Emperor of Japan to be used in
12144-413: The Khitans. A form of the name Cathai is attested in a Uyghur Manichaean document describing the external people circa 1000. The Khitans refer to themselves as Qidan ( Khitan small script : [REDACTED] ; Chinese : 契丹 ), but in the language of the ancient Uyghurs the final -n or -ń became -y, and this form may have been the source of the name Khitai for later Muslim writers. This version of
12320-428: The Manchu homelands in the Northeast. By the late 19th century the term had emerged as a common name for the whole country. The empire was sometimes referred to as Great Qing but increasingly as Zhongguo (see the discussion below). Dulimbai Gurun is the Manchu name for China, with "Dulimbai" meaning "central" or "middle" and "Gurun" meaning "nation" or "state". The historian Zhao Gang writes that "not long after
12496-534: The Manchu official Tulisen 's Manchu language account of his meeting with the Torghut Mongol leader Ayuki Khan , it was mentioned that while the Torghuts were unlike the Russians, the "people of the Central Kingdom" ( dulimba-i gurun/ 中國 ; Zhōngguó ) were like the Torghut Mongols, and the "people of the Central Kingdom" referred to the Manchus. The geography textbooks published in the late Qing period gave detailed descriptions of China's regional position and territorial space. They generally emphasized that China
12672-562: The Pacific coast, north of Beijing (Pekin) which was already well known to Europeans. The borders drawn on some of these maps would first make Cathay the northeastern section of China (e.g. 1595 map by Gerardus Mercator ), or, later, a region separated by China by the Great Wall and possibly some mountains and/or wilderness (as in a 1610 map by Jodocus Hondius , or a 1626 map by John Speed ). J. J. L. Duyvendak hypothesized that it
12848-513: The People's Republic of China and once publicised by the Republic of China, was historicially used specifically to refer to the Han Chinese. In Article Observations on the Chinese ethnic groups in History , Liang Qichao , who coined the term Zhonghua minzu , wrote "the present-day Zhonghua minzu generally refers to what is commonly known as the Han Chinese." It was only after the founding of
13024-683: The Portuguese reached Southeast Asia ( Afonso de Albuquerque conquering Malacca in 1511) and the southern coast of China ( Jorge Álvares reaching the Pearl River estuary in 1513), they started calling the country by the name used in South and Southeast Asia. It was not immediately clear to the Europeans whether this China is the same country as Cathay known from Marco Polo . Therefore, it would not be uncommon for 16th-century maps to apply
13200-575: The Qin to the Ming dynasty, literati discussed Zhongguo as both a historical place or territory and as a culture. Writers of the Ming period in particular used the term as a political tool to express opposition to expansionist policies that incorporated foreigners into the empire. In contrast foreign conquerors typically avoided discussions of Zhongguo and instead defined membership in their empires to include both Han and non-Han peoples. Zhongguo appeared in
13376-536: The Qing Empire had become part of a European-style community of sovereign states and entered into a series of treaties with the West, and such treaties and documents consistently referred to Qing rulers as the " Emperor of China " and his administration as the "Government of China". Joseph W. Esherick noted that while the Qing Emperors governed frontier non-Han areas in a different, separate system under
13552-465: The Qing established legations and consulates known as the "Chinese Legation", "Imperial Consulate of China", "Imperial Chinese Consulate (General)" or similar names in various countries with diplomatic relations , such as the United Kingdom and United States. Both English and Chinese terms, such as "China" and "Zhongguo", were frequently used by Qing legations and consulates there to refer to
13728-480: The Qing state during their diplomatic correspondences with foreign states. Moreover, the English name "China" was also used domestically by the Qing, such as in its officially released stamps since Qing set up a modern postal system in 1878. The postage stamps (known as 大龍郵票 in Chinese) had a design of a large dragon in the centre, surrounded by a boxed frame with a bilingual inscription of "CHINA" (corresponding to
13904-554: The ROC, due to pressure from the PRC, uses the name " Chinese Taipei " ( 中華台北 ) whenever it participates in international forums or most sporting events such as the Olympic Games . Taiwanese politician Mei Feng had criticised the official English name of the state, "Republic of China", for failing to translate the Chinese character "Min" ( Chinese : 民 ; English: people) according to Sun Yat-sen's original interpretations, while
14080-556: The Society for the Great Unity of Zhonghua minzu of the Republic of China in 1912 that the term began to officially include ethnic minorities from all regions in China. Han Chinese can be divided into various subgroups based on the variety of Chinese that they speak. Waves of migration have occurred throughout China's long history and vast geographical expanse, engendering the emergence of Han Chinese subgroups found throughout
14256-521: The Sui and Tang dynasties, led by the Han Chinese families of the Yang (杨) and Li (李) surnames respectively. Both the Sui and Tang dynasties are seen as high points of Han Chinese civilization. These dynasties both emphasized their aristocratic Han Chinese pedigree and enforced the restoration of Central Plains culture, even the founders of both dynasties had already intermarried with non-Han or partly-Han women from
14432-557: The Wu and Min varieties of Chinese originate from the way Chinese was spoken during the Jin, while the Yue and Hakka from the way Chinese was spoken in the Tang and Song, about half-a-millenia later. The presence of Tai-Kradai substrates in these dialects may have been due to the assimilation of the remaining groups of Bai Yue, integrating these lands into the Sinosphere proper. The chaos of
14608-517: The Xia dynasty at this time is thought to have given rise to the name "Huaxia" ( simplified Chinese : 华夏 ; traditional Chinese : 華夏 ; pinyin : Huá Xià , "the magnificent Xia"), a term that was used ubiquitously throughout history to define the Chinese nation. Conclusive archaeological evidence predating the 16th century BCE is, however, rarely available. Recent efforts of the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project drew
14784-451: The ancestors of modern Han Chinese. Han Chinese people and culture spread south from the northern heartland in the Yellow River valley, driven by large and sustained waves of migration during successive periods of Chinese history (e.g. the Qin and Han dynasties), leading to a demographic and economic tilt towards the south, and to the absorption of various non-Han ethnic groups over the centuries at various points in Chinese history. By
14960-517: The center of civilization: "There are eight famous mountains in the world: three in Man and Yi (the barbarian wilds), five in Zhōngguó ." ( 天下名山八，而三在蠻夷，五在中國。 ) In this sense, the term Zhongguo is synonymous with Huáxià ( 华夏 ; 華夏 ) and Zhōnghuá ( 中华 ; 中華 ), names of China that were first authentically attested in the Warring States period and Eastern Jin period , respectively. From
15136-487: The centres of Han Chinese culture and wealth moved from the Yellow River Basin to Jiangnan, and to a lesser extent also, to Fujian and Guangdong. At various points in Chinese history, collapses of central authority in the face of barbarian uprisings or invasions and the loss of control of the Chinese heartland triggered mass migratory waves which transformed the demographic composition and cultural identity of
15312-612: The centuries. During the Western Zhou and Han dynasties, Han Chinese writers established genealogical lineages by drawing from legendary materials originating from the Shang dynasty , while the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian places the reign of the Yellow Emperor , the legendary leader of Youxiong tribes ( 有熊氏 ), at the beginning of Chinese history. The Yellow Emperor
15488-484: The collapse of the Ming, China became the equivalent of Great Qing (Da Qing)—another official title of the Qing state," and "Qing and China became interchangeable official titles, and the latter often appeared as a substitute for the former in official documents." The Qing dynasty referred to their realm as " Dulimbai Gurun " in Manchu. The Qing equated the lands of the Qing realm (including present-day Manchuria, Xinjiang, Mongolia , Tibet, and other areas) as "China" in both
15664-402: The confines of these agricultural settlements and military outposts. The genesis of the modern Han people and their subgroups cannot be understood apart from their historical migrations to the south, resulting in a depopulation of the Central Plains, a fission between those that remained and those that headed south, and their subsequent fusion with aboriginal tribes south of the Yangtze, even as
15840-520: The connection between the Erlitou culture and the Xia dynasty, but scholars could not reach a consensus regarding the reliability of such history. The Xia dynasty was overthrown after the Battle of Mingtiao , around 1600 BCE, by Cheng Tang , who established the Shang dynasty ( c. 1600 –1046 BCE). The earliest archaeological examples of Chinese writing date back to this period – from characters inscribed on oracle bones used for divination – but
16016-471: The contemporary Roman Empire in population size, geographical extent, and cultural reach. The Han dynasty's prestige and prominence led many of the ancient Huaxia to identify themselves as 'Han people'. Similarly, the Chinese language also came to be named and alluded to as the "Han language" ( 漢語 ; 汉语 ; Hànyǔ ) ever since and the Chinese script is referred to as " Han characters ." Prior to
16192-402: The context of civil wars or periods of division, with the term Tianchao evoking the idea that the realm's ruling dynasty was appointed by heaven, or that whoever ends up reunifying China is said to have ruled Tianxia , or everything under heaven. This fits with the traditional Chinese theory of rulership, in which the emperor was nominally the political leader of the entire world and not merely
16368-436: The context) Hong Kong, Macau , or Taiwan. This term is used in official contexts on both the mainland and Taiwan when referring to the mainland as opposed to Taiwan. In certain contexts, it is equivalent to the term Neidi ( 内地 ; pinyin : nèidì , literally "the inner land"). While Neidi generally refers to the interior as opposed to a particular coastal or border location, or the coastal or border regions generally, it
16544-458: The country is often simply referred to as simply "Taiwan", although this may not be perceived as politically neutral. Amid the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War , the government and its supporters sometimes referred to themselves as "Free China" or "Liberal China", in contrast to the People's Republic of China, which was historically called the "Bandit-occupied Area" ( 匪區 ) by the ROC. In addition,
16720-404: The domain of the capital or used to refer to the Chinese civilization zhūxià ( 諸夏 ; 'the various Xia ') or zhūhuá ( 諸華 ; 'various Hua '), and the political and geographical domain that contained it, but Tianxia was the more common word for this idea. This developed into the usage of the Warring States period, when, other than the cultural community, it could be
16896-527: The east, it faces Japan across the East China Sea . To the south, it is adjacent to the South China Sea , and borders French Annam and British Burma . To the southwest, it is separated from British India by mountains. From the west to the north and the northeast, the three sides of China are all Russian territories. Only the southern border of the northeast is connected to Korea across
17072-553: The eastern provinces of China from the minority-populated, autonomous regions of the west. The name New China has been frequently applied to China by the Chinese Communist Party as a positive political and social term contrasting pre-1949 China (the establishment of the PRC ) and the new name of the socialist state, Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó (in the older postal romanization, Chunghwa Jenmin Konghokuo), or
17248-484: The ensuing civil wars and succeeded in establishing a much longer-lasting dynasty. It continued many of the institutions created by the Qin dynasty, but adopted a more moderate rule. Under the Han dynasty, art and culture flourished, while the Han Empire expanded militarily in all directions . Many Chinese scholars such as Ho Ping-ti believe that the concept ( ethnogenesis ) of Han ethnicity, although being ancient,
17424-511: The entire Qing empire while using 漢人 ; Hànrén ) to refer only to the core area of the empire, with the entire empire viewed as multiethnic. William T. Rowe wrote that the name "China" ( 中華 ; 中國 ) was apparently understood to refer to the political realm of the Han Chinese during the Ming dynasty , and this understanding persisted among the Han Chinese into the early Qing dynasty, and
17600-517: The etymological origin of the modern English word "China". The reign of the first imperial dynasty was short-lived. Due to the First Emperor's autocratic rule and his massive labor projects, which fomented rebellion among his population, the Qin dynasty fell into chaos soon after his death. Under the corrupt rule of his son and successor Huhai , the Qin dynasty collapsed a mere three years later. The Han dynasty (206 BC–220 CE) then emerged from
17776-474: The far south. At the same time, most of the nomads in northern China came to be sinicized as they ruled over large Chinese populations and adopted elements of their culture and administration. Of note, the Xianbei rulers of Northern Wei ordered a policy of systematic sinicization, adopting Han surnames , institutions, and culture, so the Xianbei became Han Chinese. Sui and Tang Han Chinese rule resumed during
17952-436: The first lines "Great Qing" would be used, whether the Chinese text in the body of the treaty would use the term Zhongguo in the same manner as "Great Qing" would be up to China's discretion. Qing official Zhang Deyi once objected to the western European name "China" and said that China referred to itself as Zhonghua in response to a European who asked why Chinese used the term guizi to refer to all Europeans. However,
18128-434: The first lines of such treaties, in the body of the treaties Zhongguo was always being used. There has never been a precedent for changing the country name" (我中華之稱中國，自上古迄今，由來已久。即與各國立約，首書寫大清國字樣，其條款內皆稱中國，從無寫改國號之例). The Chinese representatives believed that Zhongguo (China) as a country name equivalent to "Great Qing" could naturally be used internationally, which could not be changed. In the end, both sides agreed that while in
18304-825: The formation of distinct Han lineages, who also likely assimilated the by-now partially sinicized Bai Yue in their midst. Modern Han Chinese subgroups, such as the Cantonese , the Hakka , the Henghua , the Hainanese , the Hoklo peoples, the Gan , the Xiang , the Wu-speaking peoples, all claim Han Chinese ancestry pointing to official histories and their own genealogical records to support such claims. Linguists hypothesize that
18480-416: The frontiers. In effect, he established a centralized bureaucratic state to replace the old feudal confederation system of preceding dynasties, making Qin the first imperial dynasty in Chinese history. This dynasty, sometimes phonetically spelt as the "Ch'in dynasty", has been proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini and supported by later scholars such as Paul Pelliot and Berthold Laufer to be
18656-512: The geopolitical area of Chinese civilization, equivalent to Jiuzhou . In a more limited sense, it could also refer to the Central Plain or the states of Zhao , Wei , and Han , etc., geographically central among the Warring States. Although Zhongguo could be used before the Song dynasty period to mean the trans-dynastic Chinese culture or civilization to which Chinese people belonged, it
18832-459: The influence of the new Han migrants. The term is used in everyday colloquial discourse and is also an element in one of the words for Chinatown : 'streets of Tang people' ( 唐人街 ; Tángrénjiē ; Tong4 jan4 gaai1 ). The phrase Huábù ( 華埠 ; 华埠 ) is also used to refer to Chinatowns. The term Zhonghua minzu (中華民族; 中华民族; Zhōnghuámínzú), literally meaning the Chinese nation, currently used as an supra-ethnic concept publicised by
19008-484: The label China just to the coastal region already well known to the Europeans (e.g., just Guangdong on Abraham Ortelius ' 1570 map), and to place the mysterious Cathay somewhere inland. It was a small group of Jesuits , led by Matteo Ricci who, being able both to travel throughout China and to read, learned about the country from Chinese books and from conversation with people of all walks of life. During his first fifteen years in China (1583–1598) Matteo Ricci formed
19184-493: The leader of a nation-state within the world. Historically, the term was connected to the later Zhou dynasty ( c. 1046 –256 BCE ), especially the Spring and Autumn period (eighth to fourth century BCE) and the Warring States period (from there to 221 BCE, when China was reunified by Qin). The phrase Tianchao continues to see use on Chinese internet discussion boards, in reference to China. The phrase Tianchao
19360-459: The literary name for China – Zhonghua ( 中華 ; 中华 ; Zhōnghuá ; 'Central China'). While the general term Zhongguo ren ( 中國人 ; 中国人 ) refers to any Chinese citizen or Chinese national regardless of their ethnic origins and does not necessary imply Han ancestry, the term huaren in its narrow, classical usages implies Central Plains or Han ancestry. Among some southern Han Chinese varieties such as Cantonese , Hakka and Minnan ,
19536-447: The majority in both of the special administrative regions of the PRC – about 92.2% and 88.4% of the population of Hong Kong and Macau , respectively. The Han Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau have been culturally, economically and politically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han minorities. There are over 22 million people of Han Chinese ancestry in living in Taiwan. At first, these migrants chose to settle in locations that bore
19712-602: The massive number of Han Chinese immigrating during this period which included notable families such as the Wang and the Xie. A religious group known as the Celestial Masters contributed to the movement. Jiangnan became the most populous and prosperous region of China. The Uprising of the Five Barbarians , also led to the resettlement of Fujian. The province of Fujian - whose aboriginal inhabitants had been deported to
19888-455: The most part, sinicized during the last two hundreds years. The name "Han" became popularly accepted. During the Qing, the Manchu rulers also used the name Han to distinguish the natives of the Central Plains from the Manchus. After the fall of the Qing government, the Han became the name of a nationality within China. Today, the term "Han persons", often rendered in English as "Han Chinese",
20064-618: The most successful of which was the Northern Wei established by the Xianbei . From this period, the native population of China proper was referred to as Hanren, or the "People of Han" to distinguish them from the nomads from the steppe. Warfare and invasion led to one of the first great migrations of Han populations in history, as they fled south to the Yangzi and beyond, shifting the Chinese demographic center and speeding up sinicization of
20240-631: The name China and the prefix "Sino-" or "Sin-" from the Latin Sina . Europeans had knowledge of a country known in Greek as Thina or Sina from the early period; the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea from perhaps the first century AD recorded a country known as Thin ( θίν ). The English name for "China" itself is derived from Middle Persian ( Chīnī چین ). This modern word "China"
20416-764: The name China is the Chinese word Qín ( 秦 ), the name of the Qin dynasty that ultimately unified China after existing as a state within the Zhou dynasty for many centuries prior. However, there are alternative suggestions for the etymology of this word. Chinese names for China, aside from Zhongguo , include Zhōnghuá ( 中华 ; 中華 ; 'central beauty'), Huáxià ( 华夏 ; 華夏 ; 'beautiful grandness'), Shénzhōu ( 神州 ; 'divine state') and Jiǔzhōu ( 九州 ; 'nine states'). While official notions of Chinese nationality do not make any particular reference to ethnicity, common names for
20592-538: The name in reference to "those states between the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers" as the novel is set in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. Ezra Pound 's Cathay (1915) is a collection of classical Chinese poems translated freely into English verse. In Robert E. Howard 's Hyborian Age stories (including the tales of Conan the Barbarian ), the analog of China is called Khitai . In Warhammer Fantasy ,
20768-473: The name should instead be translated as "the People's Republic of China", which confuses with the current official name of China under communist control. To avoid confusion, the Chen Shui-ban led DPP administration began to add "Taiwan" next to the nation's official name since 2005. Names used in the parts of Asia, especially East and Southeast Asia, are usually derived directly from words in one of
20944-689: The name was then introduced to medieval and early modern Europe via Muslim and Russian sources. The Khitans were known to Muslim Central Asia: in 1026, the Ghaznavid court (in Ghazna , in today's Afghanistan) was visited by envoys from the Liao ruler, he was described as a "Qatā Khan", i.e. the ruler of Qatā ; Qatā or Qitā appears in writings of al-Biruni and Abu Said Gardezi in the following decades. The Persian scholar and administrator Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092) mentions Khita and China in his Book on
21120-485: The new land was absorbed into Dulimbai Gurun in a Manchu language memorial. The Qing expounded on their ideology that they were bringing together the "outer" non-Han Chinese, like the Inner Mongols, Eastern Mongols, Oirat Mongols, and Tibetans, together with the "inner" Han Chinese, into "one family" united in the Qing state, showing that the diverse subjects of the Qing were all part of one family. The Qing used
21296-592: The people, including 55 minority ethnic groups and the Han Chinese, with a single culture identifying themselves as "Chinese". The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China both used Zhonghua in their official names. Thus, Zhongguo became the common name for both governments and Zhōngguó rén ( 中国人 ; 中國人 ) for their citizens. Overseas Chinese are referred to as huáqiáo ( 华侨 ; 華僑 ; 'Chinese overseas'), or huáyì ( 华裔 ; 華裔 ; 'Chinese descendants'), i.e. Chinese children born overseas. The English translation of Zhongyuan as
21472-475: The people. The convener of Tongmenghui and Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen proposed the name Chunghwa Minkuo as the assumed name of the new country when the revolution succeeded. Since the separation from mainland China in 1949 as a result of the Chinese Civil War , the territory of the Republic of China has largely been confined to the island of Taiwan and some other small islands. Thus,
21648-574: The peripheries of the Zhou kingdoms. Overseas Chinese who possess non-Chinese citizenship are commonly referred as "Hua people" ( 华人 ; 華人 ; Huárén ) or Huazu ( 华族 ; 華族 ; Huázú ). The two respective aforementioned terms are applied solely to those with a Han background that is semantically distinct from Zhongguo ren ( 中国人 ; 中國人 ) which has connotations and implications limited to being citizens and nationals of China, especially with regard to ethnic minorities in China . The name "Han people" ( 漢人 ; 汉人 ; Hànrén ) first appeared during
21824-436: The perpetual allegiance of its subjects living abroad through paternal lineage. A Chinese word called xuètǒng ( 血統 ), which means "bloodline" as a literal translation, is used to explain the descent relationship that would characterize someone as being of Chinese descent and therefore eligible under the Qing laws and beyond, for Chinese citizenship. Mark Elliott noted that it was under the Qing that "China" transformed into
22000-564: The phrase " Zhōngwài yījiā " ( 中外 一家 ; 'China and other [countries] as one family') or " Nèiwài yījiā " ( 內外 一家 ; 'Interior and exterior as one family'), to convey this idea of "unification" of the different peoples. A Manchu-language version of a treaty with the Russian Empire concerning criminal jurisdiction over bandits called people from the Qing "people of the Central Kingdom (Dulimbai Gurun)". In
22176-555: The power of the Zhou kings fragmented not long afterwards, and many autonomous vassal states emerged. This dynasty is traditionally divided into two eras – the Western Zhou (1046–771 BCE) and the Eastern Zhou (770–256 BCE) – with the latter further divided into the Spring and Autumn (770–476 BCE) and the Warring States (476–221 BCE) periods. It was a period of significant cultural and philosophical diversification (known as
22352-486: The precedent for the next two millennia. To consolidate administrative control over the newly conquered parts of the country, the First Emperor decreed a nationwide standardization of currency, writing scripts and measurement units, to unify the country economically and culturally. He also ordered large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Great Wall , the Lingqu Canal and the Qin road system to militarily fortify
22528-401: The primary formative influence in shaping the development and growth of Chinese civilization. Originating from the Central Plains , the Han Chinese trace their ancestry to the Huaxia people, a confederation of agricultural tribes that lived along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in north central plains of China. The Huaxia are the progenitors of Chinese civilization and
22704-892: The provinces of Fujian , Guangdong and Hainan , and to a lesser extent, Guangxi , Yunnan and Zhejiang ). There are 60 million Overseas Chinese people worldwide. Overseas Han Chinese have settled in numerous countries across the globe, particularly within the Western World where nearly 4 million people of Han Chinese descent live in the United States (about 1.5% of the population), over 1 million in Australia (5.6%) and about 1.5 million in Canada (5.1%), nearly 231,000 in New Zealand (4.9%), and as many as 750,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Han Chinese have
22880-500: The region, for example, Panyu, were created by Han settlers rather than the Bai Yue, who preferred to maintain small settlements subsisting on swidden agriculture and rice farming. Later on, Guangdong, Northern Vietnam, and Yunnan all experienced a surge in Han Chinese migrants during Wang Mang 's reign. The demographic composition and culture of these regions during this period, could however scarcely be said to have been Sinitic outside
23056-531: The relocation of some communities and over time, varying degrees of intermarriage and assimilation took place. In Taiwan, Han Chinese (including both the earlier Han Taiwanese settlers and the recent Chinese that arrived in Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek in 1949) constitute over 95% of the population. They have also been a politically, culturally and economically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han indigenous Taiwanese peoples . Nearly 30 to 40 million people of Han Chinese descent live in Southeast Asia. According to
23232-436: The ruling Chinese Nationalist Party ( Kuomintang ). 中華 ( Chunghwa ) is a term that pertains to "China", while 民國 ( Minkuo ), literally "People's State" or "Peopledom", stands for "republic".. The name stems from the party manifesto of Tongmenghui in 1905, which says the four goals of the Chinese revolution were "to expel the Manchu rulers, to revive Chunghwa , to establish a Republic, and to distribute land equally among
23408-437: The seventeen provinces of China and three provinces of the east (Manchuria), excluding other frontier areas. Due to Qing using treaties clarifying the international borders of the Qing state, it was able to inculcate in the Chinese people a sense that China included areas such as Mongolia and Tibet due to education reforms in geography, which made it clear where the borders of the Qing state were, even if they didn't understand how
23584-431: The south Tibeto-Burman highlands. The inhabitants referred to themselves as Zina according to Wade. The term China can also be used to refer to: Han Chinese The Han Chinese or the Han people , or simply the Chinese , are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China . With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the world's largest ethnic group , making up about 17.5% of
23760-474: The south. At the start of the rebellion in 755 there were 52.9 million registered inhabitants of the Tang Empire, and after its end in 764, only 16.9 million were recorded. It is likely that the difference in census figures was due to the complete breakdown in administrative capabilities, as well as the widespread escape from the north by the Han Chinese and their mass migration to the south. By now,
23936-480: The south. This process of sustained mass migration has been known as "garments and headdresses moving south" 衣冠南渡 (yì guān nán dù), on account of it first being led by the aristocratic classes. Such migratory waves were numerous and triggered by such events such as the Uprising of the Five Barbarians during the Jin dynasty (304–316 AD) in which China was completely overrun by minority groups previously serving as vassals and servants to Sima (the royal house of Jin),
24112-613: The sparsely populated regions of south China were inhabited by tribes known only as the Bai Yue or Hundred Yue. Many of these tribes developed into kingdoms under rulers and nobility of Han Chinese ethnicity but retained a Bai Yue majority for several centuries. Yet others were forcibly brought into the Sinosphere by the imperial ambitions of emperors such as Qin Shi Huangdi and Han Wu Di, both of whom settled hundreds of thousands of Chinese in these lands to form agricultural colonies and military garrisons. Even then, control over these lands
24288-525: The state in Imperial China , and concepts of the state aside from the ruling dynasty were little understood. Rather, the country was called by the name of the dynasty, such as " Han ", " Tang ", " Great Ming ", " Great Qing ", etc. Until the 19th century, when the international system began to require common legal language, there was no need for a fixed or unique name. As early as the Spring and Autumn period , Zhongguo could be understood as either
24464-419: The states of the Central Plain to distinguish them from states in the outer regions. The Shi Jing defines Zhongguo as the capital region, setting it in opposition to the capital city. During the Han dynasty , three usages of Zhongguo were common. The Records of the Grand Historian use Zhongguo to denote the capital and also use the concepts zhong ("center, central") and zhongguo to indicate
24640-400: The term Tangren ( 唐人 ; Tángrén ; 'people of Tang'), derived from the name of the later Tang dynasty (618–907) that oversaw what is regarded as another golden age of China . The self-identification as Tangren is popular in south China, because it was at this time that massive waves of migration and settlement led to a shift in the center of gravity of the Chinese nation away from
24816-540: The term Zhongguo . On the other hand, American Protestant missionary John Livingstone Nevius , who had been in China for 40 years, wrote in his 1868 book that the most common name which the Chinese used in speaking of their country was Zhongguo , followed by Zhonghuaguo (中華國) and other names such as Tianchao (天朝) and the particular title of the reigning dynasty. Also, the Chinese geography textbook published in 1907 stated that "Chinese citizens call their country Zhongguo or Zhonghua ", and noted that China ( Zhongguo )
24992-427: The term "Chinese people" ( 中國人 ; Zhōngguórén ; Manchu: Dulimbai gurun i niyalma ) referred to all Han, Manchus, and Mongol subjects of the Qing. Ming loyalist Han literati held to defining the old Ming borders as China and using "foreigner" to describe minorities under Qing rule such as the Mongols and Tibetans, as part of their anti-Qing ideology. When the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759 , they proclaimed that
25168-401: The throne – fled to Wu and settled there. Three generations later, King Wu of the Zhou dynasty defeated King Zhou (the last Shang king), and enfeoffed the descendants of Taibo in Wu – mirroring the later history of Nanyue , where a Chinese king and his soldiers ruled a non-Han population and mixed with locals, who were sinicized over time. After the Battle of Muye , the Shang dynasty
25344-420: The time of the Tang and Song dynasties, Han Chinese were the main inhabitants of the fertile lowland areas and cities of southern China, with minority tribes occupying the highlands. The term "Han" not only refers to a specific ethnic collective, but also points to a shared ancestry, history, and cultural identity . The term "Huaxia" was used by the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius 's contemporaries during
25520-435: The treaty), declaring that the term Zhongguo was "meant to compare with the frontier areas of the country" and insisted that only "Great Qing" be used for the Qing in the Chinese version of the treaty. However, this was firmly rejected by the Qing representatives: "Our country China has been called Zhongguo for a long time since ancient times. We have signed treaties with various countries, and while Great Qing did appear in
25696-445: The tumult of the Central Plains to the peaceful lands south of the Yangtze and on the southeastern coast, leading to the earnest settlement by Chinese of lands hitherto regarded as part of the empire's sparsely populated frontier or periphery. Guangdong and Fujian, hitherto regarded as backwater regions populated by the descendants of garrison soldiers, exiles and refugees, became new centers and representatives of Han Chinese culture under
25872-835: The two religions appear externally similar to a Muslim merchant. This may also have been the genesis of the Prester John myth. To resolve the China – Cathay controversy, the India Jesuits sent a Portuguese lay brother, Bento de Góis , on an overland expedition north and east, with the goal of reaching Cathay and finding out once and for all whether it is China or some other country. Góis spent almost three years (1603–1605) crossing Afghanistan , Badakhshan , Kashgaria , and Kingdom of Cialis with Muslim trade caravans . In 1605, in Cialis , he, too, became convinced that his destination
26048-622: The understanding was also shared by Aisin Gioro rulers before the Ming–Qing transition . The Qing, however, "came to refer to their more expansive empire not only as the Great Qing but also, nearly interchangeably, as China" within a few decades of this development. Instead of the earlier (Ming) idea of an ethnic Han Chinese state, this new Qing China was a "self-consciously multi-ethnic state".. Han Chinese scholars had some time to adapt this, but by
26224-465: The usual modern name for China. In Javanese , the word ꦏꦠꦻ ( Katai , Katé ) exists, and it refers to "East Asian", literally meaning "dwarf" or "short-legged" in today's language. In Uyghur, the word "Xitay (Hitay)" is used as a derogatory term for Ethnic Han Chinese. In the English language , the word Cathay was sometimes used for China, although increasingly only in a poetic sense, until
26400-414: The various regions of modern China today with distinct regional features. The expansion of the Han people outside their linguistic homeland in the Yellow River is an important part of their historical consciousness and ethnogenesis, and accounts for their present-day diversity. There were several periods of mass migration of Han people to Southeastern and Southern China throughout history. Initially,
26576-520: The well-developed characters hint at a much earlier origin of writing in China. During the Shang dynasty, people of the Wu area in the Yangtze River Delta were considered a different tribe, and described as being scantily dressed, tattooed and speaking a distinct language. Later, Taibo , elder uncle of Ji Chang – on realising that his younger brother, Jili, was wiser and deserved to inherit
26752-776: The west of China, who told Ricci that now they were living in the Great Cathay. This all made them quite convinced that Cathay was indeed China. China-based Jesuits promptly informed their colleagues in Goa (Portuguese India) and Europe about their discovery of the Cathay–China identity. This was stated e.g. in a 1602 letter of Ricci's comrade Diego de Pantoja , which was published in Europe along with other Jesuits' letters in 1605. The Jesuits in India, however, were not convinced, because, according to their informants (merchants who visited
26928-464: The word Cīna in ancient Indian texts was noted by the Sanskrit scholar Hermann Jacobi who pointed out its use in the Book 2 of Arthashastra with reference to silk and woven cloth produced by the country of Cīna , although textual analysis suggests that Book 2 may not have been written long before 150 AD. The word is also found in other Sanskrit texts such as the Mahābhārata and the Laws of Manu . The Indologist Patrick Olivelle argued that
27104-501: The word Cīnā may not have been known in India before the first century BC, nevertheless he agreed that it probably referred to Qin but thought that the word itself was derived from a Central Asian language. Some Chinese and Indian scholars argued for the state of Jing ( 荆 , another name for Chu ) as the likely origin of the name. Another suggestion, made by Geoff Wade, is that the Cīnāh in Sanskrit texts refers to an ancient kingdom centered in present-day Guizhou , called Yelang , in
27280-476: The word "China" and its related terms are ultimately derived from the polity known as Qin that unified China to form the Qin dynasty ( Old Chinese : *dzin ) in the 3rd century BC, but existed as a state on the furthest west of China since the 9th century BC. This is still the most commonly held theory, although the etymology is still a matter of debate according to the Oxford English Dictionary , and many other suggestions have been mooted. The existence of
27456-493: The words of Henry Yule , it was his expedition that made " Cathay ... finally disappear from view, leaving China only in the mouths and minds of men". Ricci's and de Gois' conclusion was not, however, completely convincing for everybody in Europe yet. Samuel Purchas , who in 1625 published an English translation of Pantoja's letter and Ricci's account, thought that perhaps Cathay still can be found somewhere north of China. In this period, many cartographers were placing Cathay on
27632-399: The world that are derived from the languages of ethnic groups other than Han Chinese : examples include " Cathay " from the Khitan language , and Tabgach from Tuoba . The realm ruled by the Emperor of China is also referred to as Chinese Empire . Zhōngguó ( 中國 ) is the most common Chinese name for China in modern times. The earliest appearance of this two-character term
27808-462: The writings of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (c. 1180–1252) (as Kitaia ), and William of Rubruck (c. 1220–c. 1293) (as Cataya or Cathaia ). Travels in the Land of Kublai Khan by Marco Polo has a story called "The Road to Cathay". Rashid-al-Din Hamadani , ibn Battuta , and Marco Polo all referred to Northern China as Cathay, while Southern China, ruled by the Song dynasty , was Mangi , Manzi , Chin , or Sin . The word Manzi (蠻子) or Mangi
27984-407: Was Mangi , a term still used in maps in the 16th century. The division of China into northern and southern parts ruled by, in succession, the Liao , Jin and Yuan dynasties in the north, and the Song dynasty in the south, ended in the late 13th century with the conquest of southern China by the Yuan dynasty. While Central Asia had long known China under names similar to Cathay , that country
28160-489: Was a brief period of prosperity under the native Han Chinese dynasty known as the Jin (266–420 BC), although protracted struggles within the ruling house of Sima (司馬) sparked off a protracted period of fragmentation, rebellion by immigrant tribes that served as slaves and indentured servants, and extended non-native rule. Non-native rule During this time, areas of northern China were overrun by various non-Han nomadic peoples , which came to establish kingdoms of their own,
28336-446: Was a large country in Asia, but not the center of the world. For example, the "Elementary Chinese Geography Textbook" (蒙學中國地理教科書) published in 1905 described the boundaries of China's territory and neighboring countries as follows: "The western border of China is located in the center of Asia, bordering the (overseas) territories of Britain and Russia . The terrain is humped, like a hat. So all mountains and rivers originate from here. To
28512-473: Was also used in a pejorative manner during the 19th century, in reference to Chinese immigrants in Australasia and North America. The translated phrase has largely fallen into disuse in the 20th century. The two names Jiāngshān ( 江山 ) and Shānhé ( 山河 ), both literally 'rivers and mountains', quite similar in usage to Tianxia , simply referring to the entire world, the most prominent features of which being rivers and mountains. The use of this term
28688-579: Was coined. Some people also attribute this word to the mythical hero and king Yu the Great , who, in the legend, divided China into nine provinces during his reign. The name Han ( 汉 ; 漢 ; Hàn ) derives from the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220), which presided over China's first "golden age".. The Han dynasty collapsed in 220 and was followed by a long period of disorder, including Three Kingdoms , Sixteen Kingdoms , and Southern and Northern dynasties periods. During these periods, various non-Han ethnic groups established various dynasties in northern China. It
28864-515: Was during this period that people began to use the term "Han" to refer to the natives of North China, who (unlike the minorities) were the descendants of the subjects of the Han dynasty. During the Yuan dynasty , subjects of the empire were divided into four classes: Mongols , Semu , Han, and "Southerns". Northern Chinese were called Han, which was considered to be the highest class of Chinese. This class, "Han," includes all ethnic groups in northern China, including Khitan and Jurchen who have, for
29040-417: Was first translated into English and French in the early 19th century, appearing in foreign publications and diplomatic correspondences, with the translated phrase "Celestial Empire" occasionally used to refer to China. During this period, the term celestial was used by some to refer to the subjects of the Qing in a non-prejudicial manner, derived from the term "Celestial Empire". However, the term celestial
29216-402: Was first used by Europeans starting with Portuguese explorers of the 16th century – it was first recorded in 1516 in the journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa . The journal was translated and published in England in 1555. The traditional etymology, proposed in the 17th century by Martin Martini and supported by later scholars such as Paul Pelliot and Berthold Laufer , is that
29392-407: Was formally entrenched in the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty is considered one of the golden ages of Chinese history, with the modern Han Chinese people taking their ethnic name from this dynasty and the Chinese script being referred to as " Han characters ". The fall of the Han dynasty was followed by an age of fragmentation and several centuries of disunity amid warfare among rival kingdoms. There
29568-413: Was founded as a country 5,000 years ago and has the longest history in the world. And its culture is the best among all the Eastern countries since ancient times. Its territory covers about 90% of East Asia, and its rise and fall can affect the general trend of the countries in Asia...". After the May Fourth Movement in 1919, educated students began to spread the concept of Zhonghua , which represented
29744-430: Was in the Song dynasty that writers used Zhongguo as a term to describe the trans-dynastic entity with different dynastic names over time but having a set territory and defined by common ancestry, culture, and language. There were different usages of the term Zhongguo in every period. It could refer to the capital of the emperor to distinguish it from the capitals of his vassals, as in Western Zhou . It could refer to
29920-435: Was known to the peoples of Southeast Asia and India under names similar to China (cf. e.g. Cina in modern Malay). Meanwhile, in China itself, people usually referred to the realm in which they lived on the name of the ruling dynasty, e.g. Da Ming Guo ("Great Ming state") and Da Qing Guo ("Great Qing state"), or as Zhongguo (中國, lit. Middle Kingdom or Central State ); see also Names of China for details. When
30096-441: Was one of the few independent monarchical countries in the whole Asia at that time, along with countries like Japan. The Japanese term " Shina " was once proposed by some as a basically neutral Western-influenced equivalent for "China". But after the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, Zhongguo was also adopted as the abbreviation of Zhong hua min guo , and most Chinese considered Shina foreign and demanded that even
30272-422: Was overthrown by Zhou (led by Ji Fa ), which had emerged as a western state along the Wei River in the 2nd millennium BCE. The Zhou dynasty shared the language and culture of the Shang people, and extended their reach to encompass much of the area north of the Yangtze River . Through conquest and colonization, much of this area came under the influence of sinicization and this culture extended south. However,
30448-401: Was tenuous, and Bai Yue cultural identity remained strong until sustained waves of Han Chinese emigration in the Jin, Tang and Song dynasties altered the demographic balance completely. Chinese language (or Chinese languages) can be divided to 10 primary dialects (or languages). Each Han Chinese subgroup (民系) can be identified through their dialects: The first emperor Qin Shih Huang Di
30624-408: Was the ignorance of the fact that "China" is the mighty "Cathay" of Marco Polo that allowed the Dutch governor of East Indies Jan Pieterszoon Coen to embark on an "unfortunate" (for the Dutch) policy of treating the Ming Empire as "merely another 'oriental' kingdom". The last nail into the coffin of the idea of there being a Cathay as a country separate from China was, perhaps, driven in 1654, when
30800-399: Was the name applied by Central and Western Asians and Europeans to northern China; the name was also used in Marco Polo 's book on his travels in Yuan dynasty China (he referred to southern China as Mangi ). Odoric of Pordenone (d. 1331) also writes about Cathay and the Khan in his travelbooks from his journey before 1331, perhaps 1321–1330. The term Cathay came from the name for
30976-453: Was the only culture to use the concept for its name. However, the term Zhongguo was not initially used as a name for China. It did not have the same meaning throughout the course of history ( see above ). During the 19th century, China was alternatively (although less commonly) referred to in the west as the "Middle Flowery Kingdom", "Central Flowery Kingdom", or "Central Flowery State", translated from Zhōnghuáguó (中華國; 中华国), or simply
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